Ms Crossan said the latest statistics showed that older workers were choosing a variety of working and non-working lifestyle options.
The Household Labour Force Survey conducted quarterly by Statistics NZ reveals that over the past ten years, the proportion of people aged 65 and over who are working has increased from 5.1% to 9.4%.
Employment rates for this group, and particularly for males aged 65 and over, are rising faster than for the population in general.
The new 60plus information and calculators are part of the Retirement Commission’s website www.sorted.org.nz. This purpose built section has been created to help New Zealanders contemplating retirement or already in retirement, work out how much income and expenses they can expect as they move out of fulltime work, how much their nest-egg amounts to, and how they want to manage it over their retirement years.
“A growing number of New Zealanders are of retirement age – and looking for
some independent assistance in planning for their lifestyle,” said Retirement
Commissioner Diana Crossan.
She said the generation now considering ‘retirement’ can be aged anywhere
between about 55 and 70 or older, and are very different from any generation
before them.
Most people know that the age of eligibility for NZ Super is 65, but just over 60 percent either thought superannuation was income tested or did not know, and just over 50 percent thought it was asset-tested or did not know.
Even more surprising was that some of those close to retirement or already receiving super did not know the details. A quarter of 55 to 64 year olds, a fifth of 65-74 year olds and a third of those aged 75 or more thought it was income tested. Twenty-nine percent of those over 65 either thought it was asset tested or did not know.
The research found that encouraging people to work post-65 would have positive benefits for the workplace; demand for healthcare would outstrip supply; and friends, rather than families would play a bigger part in providing care for future older New Zealanders.
Sorted 60plus also includes the 60plus budget calculator which will help you work out how much of a nest egg you’ll need to cover your semi-retirement/retirement spending, and the Managing your nest egg calculator which will take the value of your nest egg as at today and show you how much money you could spend each year from now.